PRE-MILLENNARIANISM. THE FINALE. 399 he may build upon the rock, and so be personally safe, his work, if he be a minister, certainly will not prove to be either of gold or precious stones. We say now, because the signs are such as to leave men no excuse for closing their eyes any longer against the broad clear light of advancing day." With us the final decision is made. While we survive and minister divine truth, we hope,-God helping us,-to "preach the coming of Jesus." The happy hour is not far hence. It is near, and hasteth greatly. And should we sleep in death-not that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life-instead of grieving in our last moments, like the great Robert Hall, that we had not proclaimed this doctrine, we would choose with the departing Bickersteth, to exclaim, "I have never regretted the Lord's giving me to grasp that blessed truth." And while with the eminent Post-millennialist David Brown, of Scotland, we hold that the Bride of our Lord will MISERABLE" until the blessed Bridegroom's arrival, we also, firmly believing, that this generation and century will witness his glorious epiphany, and in view of speedy and everlasting redemption, would cry in her ears the solemn and dying words of the pious John King Lord: "TELL THE CHURCH TO HOLD ON TILL CHRIST COMES!" BE The following Table has been prepared for the second edition of this work by Mr. Sylvester Bliss, author of a valuable work on chronology, entitled, "Analysis of Sacred Chronology ;" and the fifth column gives his estimated length of the several periods intervening between the creation and the Vulgar Era The fourth column was drawn up by Rev. C. Bowen, of England, for the Rev E. B. Elliott, who gives it in his Hora Apocalypticæ, as the chronology of Mr. Clinton, whence it was copied as such in the first edition. It varies, however from Mr. Clinton's 10 years in the aggregate, and in a number of places in the detail, as will be seen by a comparison of it with the first column. The remaining columns give the age of the world, as estimated by Archbishop Usher, the learned Dr. Hales, Dr Jarvis, and Mr. Cunninghame of Scotland. The latter adopts the reading of the Septuagint instead of the Hebrew text for the chronology of the Patriarchs, and nearly coincides with that of Dr. Hales who adopts the chronology of Josephus. Usher and Jarvis, in the periods of the Judges, are governed by the period given in 1 Kings 6: 1, instead of the details of the periods in the history of the Judges and the statement of Paul in Acts 13:19-20; and consequently, they are obliged to reckon some of the periods in the Judges as synchronous, instead of successive, as there represented Še má a little i wer than the Sg and hour, and in28 Seal the works of God's TEA DAS put under tim,’ 25 actus and riskit government 4 12 29 W221 now possesses 80 125 1 De kingdom in the absax œ væc ie it in all the s the Citations for continual er det but for Him who is the y the possibility of his com3 beds the certainty of his comsenada the Millennium, which is 1. 72 making it is inconsistent with the THE BLESSED HOPE-ANDREWS 391 foretold humiliation and sorrow of the church during the whole of this dispensation, in which she is to walk in his foot. steps, and be perfected by the fellowship of his sufferings; it robs her of the blessed hope by which alone she can be purified, and towards which the Apostles ever struggled to lead her the hope of being like him and seeing him as he is; and it entangles her in worldly schemes and alliances, and so eats out all faith in the heavenly citizenship. The nations are to be blessed, and the earth, unto the uttermost parts of it, is to see the salvation of God, but it shall be when the time comes that the saints possess the kingdomDan. 7: 22; which is not during the Bridegroom's absence, for the church is the desolate widow called to fasting and mourning, and the word to her ever is, 'Be patient unto the coming of the Lord.' The last temptation by which Jesus was assailed when he was led up into the wilderness is now spreading its cunning seductions all around us, and we are looking to gain the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them, before the time that the Father shall give them to his Son. "The one great hope for the whole creation, towards which, blindly and unconsciously, if not with intelligent desire, all are reaching forward, is the 'marriage of the Lamb.' It is the hope of the Bride who shall then be one with the Lord in all his glory, and power, and fullness of blessing. It is the hope of the nations, who shall then know the blessedness of righteous rule. It is the hope of the sore-burthened earth, which longs to be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the sons of God. And it is the hope of the Lord himself, whose heart yearns over his church, purchased with his own blood, but still lying, in the desolateness of death, or amidst the defilements of this evil world, and whose word of promise is, 'Surely I come quickly' Let our response ever be, Even so, come Lord Jesus. Let our hearts be broken through our sympathy head, includes in its large reach of blessings the redemption of man's inheritance by the casting out of him who usurped it, and the purging away of all the evil with which his slimy presence has defiled and infected it. The earth was made for the revealing of God's glory, through the possession and enjoyment of its manifold treasures, free from all curse, by man standing in his allegiance to his Maker; and though the purpose was frustrated by the fall of the first Adam, it shall be accomplished in the second, who will cause the Father's will to be done forevermore. He has already in his own person, triumphed over the seductions of the serpent, and proved himself against all temptation, the obedient Son, worthy to take up the forfeited sceptre of man's dominion, and rule in righteousness for God; and he now waits only for the completion of the company of joint heirs that shall rule with him, to come forth to redeem and purify and bless his purchased inheritance. They are right who are looking for righteousness and peace to fill the earth, and make glad the obedient nations; but they are wrong who look for it, before the Man who is the heir shall come forth to make it his own eternal dwelling place. He was made a little lower than the angels, for the suffering of death, to pay the price of the redemption; and then crowned with glory and honor, and invested with the right of dominion over all the works of God's hand; but now we see not yet all things put under him,' and the next step shall be his actual and visible government of the creatures. It is an idle dream which now possesses so many that the church is to bring in the kingdom in the absence of the King. There is not one word for it in all the Scriptures. It contradicts the exhortations for continual watchfulness for Him-not for death, but for Him who is the conqueror of death,-which imply the possibility of his coming in any generation, and therefore the certainty of his coming before the long, fixed period of the Millennium, which is the time for rest, not for watching it is inconsistent with the THE BLESSED HOPE-ANDREWS 391 foretold humiliation and sorrow of the church during the whole of this dispensation, in which she is to walk in his foot. steps, and be perfected by the fellowship of his sufferings; it robs her of the blessed hope by which alone she can be purified, and towards which the Apostles ever struggled to lead her the hope of being like him and seeing him as he is; and it entangles her in worldly schemes and alliances, and so eats out all faith in the heavenly citizenship. The nations are to be blessed, and the earth, unto the uttermost parts of it, is to see the salvation of God, but it shall be when the time comes that the saints possess the kingdomDan. 7 22; which is not during the Bridegroom's absence, for the church is the desolate widow called to fasting and mourning, and the word to her ever is, 'Be patient unto the coming of the Lord.' The last temptation by which Jesus was assailed when he was led up into the wilderness is now spreading its cunning seductions all around us, and we are looking to gain the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them, before the time that the Father shall give them to his Son. "The one great hope for the whole creation, towards which, blindly and unconsciously, if not with intelligent desire, all are reaching forward, is the 'marriage of the Lamb.' It is the hope of the Bride who shall then be one with the Lord in all his glory, and power, and fullness of blessing. It is the hope of the nations, who shall then know the blessedness of righteous rule. It is the hope of the sore-burthened earth, which longs to be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the sons of God. And it is the hope of the Lord himself, whose heart yearns over his church, purchased with his own blood, but still lying, in the desolateness of death, or amidst the defilements of this evil world, and whose word of promise is, 'Surely I come quickly' Let our response ever be, Even so, come Lord Jesus.' Let our hearts be broken through our sympathy |